Twin Falls Olympian Sets His Eyes on Tokyo, Dad Says

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KLIX) – Twin Falls native Will Brown took a shot at the Olympics – and will return home later this month with his head held high.

Brown, a member of USA Shooting Team, didn’t win any medals in the 2016 Olympics in Rio, but he told his father that he believed he gave one of his better performances.

Brown, 24, placed 12th in the men’s 10-meter air pistol event on Saturday, and 10th in the men’s 50-meter pistol event on Wednesday. His father, Dan Brown, spoke with his son on Saturday to see how he was holding up.

“He was really up,” Dan said. “He told me: ‘I know my score was down a few points, but I thought I shot one of my better matches.’”

Wind and rain canceled some of the outdoor sports on Wednesday, but the 50-meter event wasn’t one of them.

“Those are tough conditions when trying to hit a 2-inch ring at 50 meters off-hand with a pistol,” Dan said. “I was pretty happy with his score. … Everybody wants to win a medal, but I think he did very well today.”

It’s been a bit nerve-wracking for Dan and his wife, Susan, to watch the Olympics from their Twin Falls home. They’re used to their son traveling to competitions in foreign lands – Will has traveled to Germany, Thailand and a separate trip to Rio this year alone – but it would have been nice for them to attend the Games, especially since the shooting sports were not telecast as much as other events.

“I’m glad there was the coverage that there was, but we didn’t get to see any of his targets. We watched the live scoring instead,” Dan said. “We’d sit for an hour and a half and watch the scores change.”

Brown returns home on Aug. 16.

Dan said he doesn’t believe this will be the end of the Olympics for his son, who has been shooting professionally since 2006.

“I think he’s pretty fired up about it,” he said. “When people ask what I hope for Will, I say I just hope when he comes back that he’ll be hungry, either hungry enough to move on to something else or hungry enough to try for another Olympics. I think he’s got his eyes set on Tokyo."